A group of ten people from Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Tunisia underwent a specialized training dedicated to intermodal transport as a way to improve the efficiency of freight circulation between ports of the Mediterranean Sea.

The training course, organised last February in Barcelona under the OPTIMED project, offered to participants the opportunity to develop their expertise in relevant concepts and tools associated to intermodal transport including: motorways of the sea, short sea shipping and e-freight (procedure aimed to largely eliminate paper documents from the maritime shipping value chain by replacing paper documents with standardised electronic messages transmitted via a regulated data exchange).

On returning to their countries, trained participants will seek to raise the awareness of public and private actors of the logistics sector on the benefits of intermodal transport, which are related to the optimization in the use of different modes of transport on their own and in combination.

"With the contribution of the OPTIMED project, intermodal transport has the potential to become a significant portion of the logistics sector in Lebanon because all the goods coming from Europe could be unloaded in the Port of Beirut and then transported by road to the neighbouring countries of the Middle East and the Gulf,"said Wissam El Hossari from the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture of Beirut and Mount Lebanon.

OPTIMED in brief

The main objective of the OPTIMED project is the optimization of trade in the Mediterranean Sea Basin through the improvement of commercial connections between public and private operators in maritime transport and logistics sector. In order to achieve this goal, the seven organizations part of the project will develop new tools such as a virtual logistics platform, organize business meetings among operators of the Euro-Mediterranean area and promote short sea shipping.